The Operator’s Math Behind Empty-Leg Flights

Four of every 10 private aircraft flights fly empty, according to a 2026 Corporate Jet Investor interview with the founder of empty-leg marketplace SkyAccess. Put another way, more than one million passenger-less aircraft movements a year are not a strange corner of charter. They are a regular by-product of putting privately owned airplanes exactly where paying customers need them.

From the cabin, an empty leg looks like a bargain with leather seats. From an operator’s desk, it is a thin slice of time between two higher-priority events: the trip that created the repositioning flight, and the next trip that depends on it.

That is why empty legs are often cheap, sometimes expensive, and frequently unavailable just when a traveler wants one.

The leg already has a sponsor

An empty leg usually begins with a paid one-way charter. A customer flies from Westchester to Naples, Florida, on Friday morning. The aircraft then needs to go home, or to Atlanta for another pickup, or to maintenance in Wichita. If no passenger rides along, the operator still flies the aircraft, pays the crew, buys the fuel, and records the cycle on the airframe.

In normal charter pricing, that empty movement is not magic. It is usually built into the quote. NBAA’s ownership and operating guidance notes that charter customers can be responsible for repositioning at the same hourly rate, especially on one-way trips where the aircraft must be moved back home or onward.

So the operator’s question is not, “Can this flight make money from nothing?” It is sharper: “Can this flight earn extra revenue without harming the trip that already paid for the airplane to move?”

That distinction explains much of the empty-leg market. The original charter often covers the economic reason for the repositioning. A second passenger may turn dead time into cash, but only if the request stays inside the route, the time window, the owner’s rules, the crew day, and the certificate holder’s operating limits.

The floor is not zero

The oldest empty-leg myth is that any fare is better than no fare. Operators know better. A passenger adds work and risk even when the aircraft is going that way.

The aircraft must be cleaned and stocked. Passenger details have to be checked. Ground handling may change. Catering may be ordered. A flight that could have launched at the crew’s convenience now has a show time, an FBO reservation, a client services file, and a person who may be late.

The floor starts with variable cost. JetAtlas reference figures show how different that floor can be across aircraft types.

Those figures exclude many trip-specific items: landing fees, ramp and handling charges, de-icing, catering, overnight crew costs, international permits, cleaning, maintenance reserves priced by the operator, and broker commission. They also do not include the owner’s view of wear, passenger profile, or minimum acceptable charter revenue.

On a two-hour King Air reposition, a few thousand dollars may be useful revenue. On a two-hour G650ER movement, a low offer can become noise: too much handling, too much customer-service exposure, and too little contribution for a large-cabin aircraft that can earn far more on a long-haul trip.

The tax line still matters

In the United States, an empty leg sold as charter is still taxable air transportation unless an exemption applies. For calendar year 2026, IRS instructions list a 7.5 percent tax on amounts paid for taxable passenger air transportation. They also list a $5.30 domestic segment tax per passenger for 2026. The IRS example for a charter flight applies the segment tax by multiplying the segment charge by the number of passengers carried.

That creates a practical issue for operators and brokers. A posted empty-leg price may look simple, but the final invoice still needs the correct taxes and fees. On small numbers, the tax line can be visible. On larger aircraft, it is less dramatic than fuel, but it is still part of the collection and reporting job.

Why a discount can still be a bad sale

A good empty-leg customer accepts the aircraft’s plan. A bad one slowly turns a repositioning flight into a custom charter.

Operators look hard at requests such as:

• moving departure by several hours;
• changing from one airport to another across a busy metro area;
• adding a stop;
• waiting for late passengers;
• carrying unusual baggage or pets;
• asking for a guaranteed replacement aircraft if the original trip changes;
• pushing the crew toward a duty-limit problem.

Each change chips away at the reason the empty leg exists. A 45-minute delay may be harmless on a slow afternoon. The same delay can wreck an evening pickup for a full-fare client, force a crew swap, or push an arrival into a curfew.

This is why operators protect the primary charter first. Empty-leg passengers are usually told that the flight may cancel if the underlying trip changes. Business Jet Traveler has long warned that empty legs can disappear when the charter that created them is canceled, even after payment, with a refund rather than a substitute aircraft.

A guaranteed backup changes the economics completely. At that point the operator may need to source another aircraft, pay market charter rates, or strand a crew. The discount vanishes because the operator is no longer selling surplus movement. It is selling reliability.

Owners have a vote

Many charter aircraft are not owned by the operator. They are privately owned aircraft on a management certificate, made available for charter under agreed rules. The management company may see a smart piece of incremental revenue. The owner may see strangers wearing out the interior for a fare below the aircraft’s image or economic threshold.

Owner approval can shape the empty-leg decision as much as fuel price. Some owners want maximum charter offset. Some allow only certain trips. Some dislike pets, ski gear, short sectors, late-night returns, or discounting that makes the aircraft feel like distressed inventory.

That is one reason a jet can fly empty despite visible demand. The operator may have a legal aircraft, a willing buyer, and a route match, but not the owner permission or schedule slack needed to make the sale worthwhile.

The new platforms are chasing speed

Empty legs used to move through emails, broker calls, spreadsheets, and private message groups. That system fits a relationship business, but it is poor at perishable inventory. A repositioning leg can be useful at 10 a.m., stale by noon, and gone by 3 p.m.

Recent platforms are trying to close that gap. AIN reported in November 2023 that Vaunt launched with Volato, offering access to unoccupied positioning flights through a $1,000 annual membership. In June 2024, Volato said Vaunt had reached $1 million in annual recurring revenue, nearly 45,000 registered users, and more than 450 filled empty-leg flights since launch.

SkyAccess described a different model to Corporate Jet Investor in August 2026: no charge to operators or customers to use the platform, with a service fee added to bookings. The company said it had more than 5,000 empty-leg listings, about 600 flights eligible for instant booking, and a reliability score that must exceed 95 out of 100 for instant booking after at least 500-plus operator bookings.

The common target is not glamour. It is latency. The faster an operator can publish a leg, update its status, price it, and remove it when the schedule changes, the better chance it has of earning money without adding chaos.

Scale changes the odds

Large operators have more chances to match aircraft and passengers because they have more aircraft, more data, and more city pairs. McKinsey’s 2026 business aviation report said the top three operator groups, NetJets, VistaJet, and Flexjet including subsidiaries, flew about 20 percent of total business jet hours in 2025, up from around 15 percent in 2019. The same report pointed to higher utilization, fewer dead legs, and more digital spending as part of the industry’s push for scale.

A one-aircraft operator based in a small city may have only one solution: fly home empty. A fleet operator may be able to swap tails, sell a nearby leg, or keep an aircraft floating in a stronger market. Fractional fleets can also reposition differently because their networks are built around many owners using interchangeable aircraft, not one owner’s airplane returning to one hangar.

Still, scale does not abolish geography. Empty legs gather where private aircraft already move: South Florida, New York, Southern California, Texas, ski airports in season, island routes, and event-driven cities. They are scarce where demand is thin or one-directional.

The operator’s real calculation

The empty-leg decision often comes down to a short list:

• Is the aircraft already moving for a paid reason?
• Will the passenger accept the existing route and time?
• Does the price cover variable cost and handling?
• Will the owner approve the trip?
• Does the crew remain legal and rested for the next duty period?
• Can the operator cancel or refund without buying a replacement aircraft?
• Does selling the leg protect, or threaten, the next full-fare customer?

If the answers line up, the empty leg is found money. If they do not, the safest economic choice may be to close the cabin door with only the crew onboard.

That is the part passengers rarely see. The aircraft rolling away from the FBO without them may not be a missed bargain. It may be a scheduler protecting tomorrow morning’s 8:15 departure, a crew duty clock, and a jet that has to be clean, fueled, and waiting at the right door.

Sources

• Corporate Jet Investor: SkyAccess CEO on realising the empty leg opportunity
• AIN: App-based Vaunt Offers Private Jet Empty Leg Membership Program
• Volato: Vaunt Reaches $1 Million of Annual Recurring Revenue in 2024
• McKinsey: The state of business aviation in 2026
• IRS: Instructions for Form 720, air transportation taxes
• FAA: Safe Air Charter